UK

Are mobile phones wiping out
our bees?

Scientists claim radiation
from handsets are to blame for mysterious
'colony collapse' of bees.

By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet
Shawcross

Published: 15 April 2007

It seems like the plot of a particularly
far-fetched horror film. But some
scientists suggest that our love of the
mobile phone could cause massive food
shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory
that radiation given off by mobile
phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a
possible answer to one of the more
bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the
natural world - the abrupt disappearance
of the bees that pollinate crops. Late
last week, some bee-keepers claimed that
the phenomenon - which started in the
US, then spread to continental Europe -
was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from
mobile phones interferes with bees'
navigation systems, preventing the
famously homeloving species from finding
their way back to their hives.
Improbable as it may seem, there is now
evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs
when a hive's inhabitants suddenly
disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and
a few immature workers, like so many
apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees
are never found, but thought to die
singly far from home. The parasites,
wildlife and other bees that normally
raid the honey and pollen left behind
when a colony dies, refuse to go
anywhere near the abandoned hives.

The alarm was first sounded last
autumn, but has now hit half of all
American states. The West Coast is
thought to have lost 60 per cent of its
commercial bee population, with 70 per
cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany,
Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and
Greece. And last week John Chapple, one
of London's biggest bee-keepers,
announced that 23 of his 40 hives have
been abruptly abandoned.

Other apiarists have recorded losses
in Scotland, Wales and north-west
England, but the Department of the
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
insisted: "There is absolutely no
evidence of CCD in the UK."

The implications of the spread are
alarming. Most of the world's crops
depend on pollination by bees. Albert
Einstein once said that if the bees
disappeared, "man would have only four
years of life left".

No one knows why it is happening.
Theories involving mites, pesticides,
global warming and GM crops have been
proposed, but all have drawbacks.

German research has long shown that
bees' behaviour changes near power
lines.

Now a limited study at Landau
University has found that bees refuse to
return to their hives when mobile phones
are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who
carried it out, said this could provide
a "hint" to a possible cause.

Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive
study by the US government and mobile
phone industry of hazards from mobiles
in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced
the possibility is real."

The case against handsets

Evidence of dangers to people from
mobile phones is increasing. But proof
is still lacking, largely because many
of the biggest perils, such as cancer,
take decades to show up.

Most research on cancer has so far
proved inconclusive. But an official
Finnish study found that people who used
the phones for more than 10 years were
40 per cent more likely to get a brain
tumour on the same side as they held the
handset.

Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish
research revealed that radiation from
mobile phones killed off brain cells,
suggesting that today's teenagers could
go senile in the prime of their lives.

Studies in India and the US have
raised the possibility that men who use
mobile phones heavily have reduced sperm
counts. And, more prosaically, doctors
have identified the condition of "text
thumb", a form of RSI from constant
texting.

Professor Sir William Stewart, who
has headed two official inquiries,
warned that children under eight should
not use mobiles and made a series of
safety recommendations, largely igno